Former Miss Universe Sri Lanka Ornella Gunesekere appears in the Netflix series Brigerton Season 3 in a supporting role.

Bridgerton is an American historical romance television series created by Chris Van Dusen for Netflix. Based on the book series by Julia Quinn, it is Shondaland’s first scripted show for Netflix. 

Gunesekere won the title of Miss Universe Sri Lanka and made history for Sri Lanka by winning the “Miss Congeniality” Award at the Miss Universe pageant 2018. 

She was part of a team that made world history as she also represented Sri Lanka among 18 other models from Nepal, Finland, and Italy at the “Mt. Everest Fashion Runway,” the highest altitude Fashion show, which took place at Kala Pathhar, Mount Everest, on 26 January 2020.

She’s done all this and more while overcoming health related issues that left her facing paralysis and even death, having to learn to walk from scratch barely a decade ago.

Story source: Pulse.lk

A fans’ favourite on TV show MasterChef has said his love of cooking is inspired by his Sri Lankan heritage.

Brin Pirathapan, 29, from Chelmsford, is one the three finalists on the BBC One show.

Dr Pirathapan, who was working as a veterinary surgeon in Bristol before entering the show, said his passion for food was sparked by his parents.

“The food I grew up with was never boring, coming from a Tamil, Sri Lankan background – we had nice food on the table and it’s never bland,” he said.

He said the home cooking he experienced growing up set the standard for him.

“It gave me that basis of learning about flavour and creating flavour and from there I started looking into different cultures and cuisines and built up my repertoire from there,” he said.

“I’ve been incredibly lucky with the amount of support I have had.

“It so nice that everyone is proud of me in this quite different career path of what I know.”

‘Second chance’

Dr Pirathapan still works as a vet but said he would love to work in the food industry in the future.

“I have almost been given this incredible second chance to focus on a proper passion of mine and I would love to take it forward,” he said.

“My priority now is going to be food.”

He told BBC Essex he had watched MasterChef since he was a boy and would have regretted not applying this year.

“The first time I walked into that kitchen… and it just hit me like a tonne of bricks that I was there,” he said.

“It looks exactly like it does on the show. It doesn’t look like a TV set – it looks like the big kitchen and you’re just there in that kitchen you’ve been watching for two decades now”.

“That was a pretty big moment – it was definitely nerve-racking but super-exciting as well.”

Source : BBC

Sri Lankan actress Dinara Punchihewa has been honored by Forbes magazine, being featured on the prestigious “30 Under 30 Asia” list in the entertainment and sports category.

According to Forbes, the 29-year-old Dinara Punchihewa made a notable entry into the Sri Lankan cinema scene in 2018 by writing, acting in, and directing her short film Maala. This film was showcased at international film festivals and drew the attention of renowned Sri Lankan filmmaker Prasanna Vithanage, who cast her in Gaadi – Children of the Sun (2019).

Since her debut, she has appeared in four additional films. Punchihewa, an alumna of Queen Mary University of London, also founded Punchi Actors, a non-profit organization dedicated to introducing children from low-income families to theatre and acting. Forbes highlighted her achievements in their article titled “Meet the 30 Under 30 Stars and Athletes Breaking Stereotypes and Empowering Their Generation.”